Posts Tagged woodpeckers

This weekend, after 1 year 7 months & 20 days, we saw our 200th life bird – the Eurasian Collard Dove (which may be common where you are, but not so much in Cape May, NJ). We saw all three that have been hanging around town recently. It was a great weekend, despite rain on Saturday and generally overcast skies the rest of the time. We clocked about 17 hours in all and were rewarded with 75 birds (76 if you count the Guinea Fowl we saw on the road; 76 if you count the roosters that also wandered onto the road). Included were a dozen Glossy Ibises, a half-dozen Snowy Egrets, an adult American Bald Eagle, a Northern Harrier, several Red-Headed Woodpeckers (a target bird for us, and our 201st lifer), a dozen+ Ring Necked Ducks (our 202nd lifer), the first Chipping Sparrows of spring, and some other new birds for us: Northern Gannet, Black Scoter, Red Breasted Merganser, and Red Throated Loon. Lots of Yellow Rumped Warblers, of course. The Piping Plovers were active along with the Sanderlings. In all, we had lots of fun and our feet are tired.

And now for some pics. As always, you can click them once or twice to enlarge them.

First up, from the Ridley Creek Bridle Trail, a female Downy Woodpecker posing for the camera:

Next up, a beautiful Eastern Bluebird:

How about a Fox Sparrow?

Or a Red Tailed Hawk, perched?

A Carolina Wren…perhaps looking you right in the eye?

Not impressed yet? How about a Gray Catbird? Sure, dime a dozen…but not in February! (We’ve been seeing them in various places over the last few weeks, one at a time except for today, when we saw three together.)

[GRCA Okehocking, 2/21/12 4:30 pm]

If that weren’t enough, last week we saw a Northern Parula! Sorry, no pic. I was too busy trying to i.d a bird that shouldn’t’ve been there, so you will have to take our word for it. But whether you do or don’t, spring is coming, and these seasonal rarities will be beautifully abundant and abundantly beautiful!

Yesterday, as a legend succumbed to death, we were out enjoying life. Yesterday, before the disappointments came that must come to one side or the other in the contests we set for ourselves, we were out accepting the free gift of nature. Some photos from the Tyler Arboretum: